Vacation Week Almost Over

It's been a fun week, just Tom and I hanging out at home. We got lucky in that Tom only had to work a few hours on Thursday! He was home the rest of the week which was a bonus compared to thinking that he may not have much time off this week - I love it when a work plan falls apart.
We did some riding, worked on the garden box project and had a nice relaxing time at home. I also managed to do my Tamales on Thursday AND Friday!

TAMALES

I must be part Mexican some how because I LOVE Mexican food! I have been wanting to make a decent tamale for quite a while now. The only tamales I have had were the kind that came in a can that had a layer of fat on the top when you opened the can (not that good) and the frozen variety that I have found at Trader Joe's (they are not bad).

So, a month ago or so I ordered a couple of books - Tamales 101 and Tamales - and got to studying. I decided that I would go with the more traditional recipes in the 101 book before I branch out to the more exotic recipes of the other book. Also, I have a "Best of Mexico" book that I have used when I make tortillas that I think is a pretty good book too.

On Thursday I got all the components ready to go and made the Masa Dough and got somewhat organized and got to wrapping pork in red sauce into masa and then folding them into corn husks - it turns out that they are much easier than I thought and my first batch of tamales turned out pretty well. So much so that I thought I should share them with some friends - I like tamales, but when you make your own you get A LOT!

Thursday evening I got a wild hair and decided to try another "flavor" and decided on Chicken Verde Tamales. These would require a Salsa Verde which must be made from scratch. Only because I wanted to find out how to do this and how long it would take. It didn't take long and by the end of the evening I had Salsa Verde - and tons of it!

My Tamale Reference Books - or cookbooks.

One of the Pork with Red Sauce Tamales

The people I shared the tamales with said that they were good...which I'm glad because I thought they were pretty good myself. I love to "experiment" on my friends and they don't seem to mind.

Next up, chocolate tamales with caramel sauce - I don't think there will be a shortage of people who would be willing to try these out!

The last week has been a lot of fun and I wish I didn't have to go back to work already, but I'll be looking forward to my next mini-vacation.